Before the morning news shows play nice tomorrow, this morning saw what appeared to be a major booking battle between NBC's Today show and ABC's Good Morning America.

Today's Matt Lauer interviewed Alison Dalton and Dick Neely, the two missing divers who were rescued after spending 19 hours drifting in the ocean. NBC's report and interview can be found here.

At the same time on ABC, GMA's Chris Cuomo had a different story about the divers altogether. "Why did they rush to sell their story to the media?" he asked, focusing on the other side of the story. The couple have admitted to selling their story to Australia's Channel 9.

"We did reach out to Dalton and Nealy ourselves. They did not want to interview with us," he said, seeming to imply ABC was not prepared to pay for the interview.

Lauer brought up the criticisms of the couple at the end of his interview, including the fact that they had sold their story. "Not to us, I should mention," he said.

Click continued to see Cuomo's full report on GMA...

continued...

The LATimes' Meg James and Matea Gold report that NBC is saying so long to beautiful downtown Burbank and moving to Universal City. (via ICN)

The new "green" facility, with its high-definition news headquarters, is scheduled to house NBC News' West Coast operations and the local news staffs of KNBC and Telemundo's KVEA-TV. NBC Universal expects to move into the new center in 2011.

"I think this is a real pronouncement of a serious commitment on the company's part to news and information going forward," said Steve Capus, president of NBC News, adding that the new Universal City headquarters would give his division a "central nervous system."

The Times piece mentions NBC News' East Coast operations are also undergoing a transformation. NBC is set to unveil its new combined NBC/MSNBC operations today at 30 Rock. More on that tomorrow...

The Today Show beat Good Morning America, barely, in today's high-stakes softball game in Central Park today.

In a game that went into extra innings, Tiki Barber (ringer) and Al Roker (third base coach) helped NBC win 8-7.

[Insert metaphor about winning on air on and on the field here.]

Early in the game, the ump made a wrong call against GMA pitcher Chris Cuomo. The ump admitted it, and Cuomo and GMA graciously bowed out.

An insider says one of the funniest moments of the game came when Diane Sawyer tried to tackle Barber as he was warming up.

Later, Tiki came over to the GMA dugout for a drink and hot dog...

Leaving the booking wars behind, Good Morning America and the Today show are taking their morning battle to Central Park.

Staffers from the shows will take their rivalry to the softball field this afternoon. Today might have an advantage with former NFL running back Tiki Barber on the roster, but GMA's Robin Roberts was a star on the college basketball team at Southeastern Louisiana University...

This isn't just a morning show war anymore; it's a morning show EP war. In today's Washington Post, it starts with GMA EP Jim Murphy: "The 'Today' show can continue to cover the Anna Nicole Smith hearings... They do have an overabundance of tabloid stuff. They are just pandering because they're not doing as well as they expected to do."

Then the others chime in:

Steve Friedman, CBS's vice president of morning programming, says Vieira "hasn't mastered the rhythms of morning television yet. She appears a little uneasy and a little uncomfortable. I do believe there is more talk and less news on the 'Today' show in this incarnation, and that has given us and 'GMA' an opportunity, at least in our own minds, to attack them on the news end." Jim Bell, executive producer of "Today," laughs off the criticism. He says "Dr. Frankenstein" could not have created a better co-host, noting that Vieira is a wife, a mother and a former "60 Minutes" correspondent. "She's brought a wonderful personality and sense of humor and mischievousness," he says. Bell dismisses as "hogwash" suggestions that the show's content has significantly changed and has little patience for sniping by Friedman, who has twice served as the "Today" producer. "Mr. Friedman and company are obsessed with us," Bell says. "While they're obsessed with us, we will pave the road for others to follow."

Check out the rest of Howard Kurtz's story...

"All three morning shows have network spin doctors touting every ratings gain posted by their programs and trashing the competition when the numbers slip," the latest edition of TV Week notes.

Steve Friedman says his Early Show is "getting the viewers the Today show is losing." He thinks NBC is going soft, saying: "Both we and GMA have decided to attack the 'Today' show on news. We're trying to make [Early] a harder, smarter show."

Here's the full story...

...That's the title of this Michael Starr item:

'Good Morning America' wants you to know that, in the just-completed February sweeps, it didn't decline in total viewers, even with new weather guy Sam Champion and new news anchor Chris Cuomo. Over on 'Today,' they'd like you to know that last week, even when 'GMA' was basking in the post-Oscars glow, 'Today' still beat its rival by 600,000+ viewers. Everyone happy now? (Don't answer that.)

> Update: 4:57pm: When the final numbers come out on Thursday, Today will show its lowest rating in 12 years in households, women 25-54, adults 25-54, and women 18-49...

> Update: 3:07pm: An e-mailer wonders: "Is it possible that Katie Couric is more valuable to the Early Show by not being on Today than she is to the Evening News?..."

February sweep ratings suggest that NBC misses Katie Couric. Last month, Today was down 8 percent in total viewers and 9 percent in the 25-54 demo versus the same month last year. It marked NBC's lowest-rated sweep in more than a decade in the demo.

Good Morning America has flat in viewers and down 5 percent in the demo. And The Early Show was up 11 percent in viewers and up 3 percent in the demo.

Sweep-to-sweep, the gap between Today and GMA has tightened from 810,000 to 632,000 in the demo (22 percent smaller) and from 1,320,000 to 796,000 in viewers (40 percent smaller). Here's a chart from ABC showing the change; click on it to view full-size:



> Update: 4:33pm: The above chart doesn't show season-to-date details. 2007 STD, Today is averaging 5,758,000 total viewers, compared to 5,999,000 in 2006 STD. GMA is averaging 4,938,000, compared to 5,177,000 in '06. The '07 season-to-date gap stands at 820,000, compared to 822,000 last season...

"Today's ratings loss is Early's gain," Variety reports:

"Today is on course to finish first in February sweeps by a wide margin over ABC's Good Morning America, but it is doing so with 500,000 fewer viewers than last season, when it was lifted by its coverage of the Olympics in Torino.

Meanwhile, CBS' perennial third-place Early Show gained some ground, helped by the Super Bowl, adding 12% in total viewers over the same frame last year."

Monday on the morning shows: Good Morning America's Sam Champion on the left (in the snow) and the Today Show's Al Roker on the right (in NBC's Burbank studio)...